WWALS Watershed Coalition advocates for conservation and stewardship of the Withlacoochee, Willacoochee, Alapaha, Little, and Suwannee River watersheds in south Georgia and north Florida through education, awareness, environmental monitoring, and citizen activities.

This Pennsylvania case is about Transcontinental Pipeline Company (Transco),
which is also behind the Hillabee Expansion Project in Alabama,
the source of Sabal Trail’s fracked methane in the Continue reading →

Specifically, the Court aims to address a circuit split among the
4th, 5th and 9th Circuits in determining whether only direct
discharges to “navigable waters” (rivers, lakes and
other surface waters, for example) are covered or whether
groundwater that is “hydrologically connected to surface
water” is subject to Clean Water Act (CWA) pollution discharge
requirements.2 Groundwater—that is, water held beneath the
soil or in between rock structures—does not fall under CWA
jurisdiction. Nevertheless, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), for many years, maintained that pollutants that flow with a
direct and immediate hydrologic connection through groundwater into
surface waters are properly regulated under the CWA.3
Environmentalists agree with EPA’s long-standing position, while
many in industry say that the agency is reaching beyond its scope.

Surface water interchanges with groundwater all the time here in the
southeast coastal plain, where we all drink with straws from the groundwater.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Neither the builders of the fracked gas
Sabal Trail Pipeline nor the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC) will ask the Supreme Court to review a landmark ruling by the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from last
year. That decision required FERC to consider the effects of
downstream greenhouse gases when deciding whether to approve
proposed pipelines that transport gas.

In response, Sierra Club Staff Attorney Elly Benson released the
following statement:

Elly Benson, Sierra Club Staff Attorney

“We are glad to see FERC accept its responsibility to consider
greenhouse gas emissions from burning transported gas at downstream
power plants. These dirty, dangerous, and unnecessary pipelines pose
a threat to our communities and climate. They should not be
proposed, much less built, at a time when clean, renewable energy
sources are abundant and affordable. We will continue to monitor the
pipeline permitting process to ensure the law is followed.”

OilPrice.com calls it “a critical decision yesterday,
that could jeopardize the future for pipeline projects across the country”;
pipeline companies could be “spooked” and
“…the court ruling raises the unsettling
possibility that the project may be forced to shut down —
after billions were spent putting it in into service.”
Other stories say this ‘huge’ win could also affect
the Atlantic Sunrise, Penneast, Atlantic Coast, and Rover Pipelines,
among others.

(L to R) Lea Fox, 4, Finn Ryder Purdy, 4, and Mason Dana, 7, of Lake
Worth, sit with gas pipeline protesters outside of Florida Power and
Light headquarters on Universe Boulevard in Juno Beach on October
14, 2016. The Sabal Trail Pipeline began supplying FPL’s plants in
June. Groups opposed the pipeline that will start in Alabama and
bring fracked gas through several counties in Florida’s springs and
wetlands. (Richard Graulich / The Palm Beach Post)

Sad for FPL, Duke, Spectra, and all the other pipeline-building
purveyors of fracked methane, maybe, but glad for all the
landowners whose land was taken, local citizens who don’t want
a 500+-mile IED next to their homes, schools, and waterways,
and all people who want clean sun and wind energy, not more polluting fossil fuels.

It’s good the industry press agrees with what I told the VDT:
“This is wind in our sails and could be the end of Sabal Trail.”

Justice Scalia never said the EPA emissions rule was struck down,
rather the Supreme Court sent it back to a lower court to
get a cost analysis from EPA.
Meanwhile, many of the emissions controls are already in place
on coal plants (including Plant Scherer),
other coal plants have closed or are closing,
and investors are abandoning coal in droves.
So what Scalia wants may or may not be impossible for EPA
to deliver, but EPA actually already has helped sink dirty coal.
Meanwhile, Georgia Power finally is helping the sun rise on Georgia.
So the prognosis is good for less mercury in the Alapaha River.

The EPA should account for all costs before making a ruling on mercury
or other coal plant emissions, according to a 5:4 majority of the Supreme Court.
The dissenting minority points out not only are costs usually figured
in during the follow-on process for specific limits, but that actual costs
can’t even be computed without knowing those limits.
So Coal Plant Scherer mercury in the Alapaha River
can’t be limited without figuring all the costs first, says the SCOTUS majority,
although EPA and the Court minority point to numerous well-known medical
problems caused by mercury.
Are profits for a few big utilities and coal companies more important
than clean water and public health,
especially now that there are cleaner, safer, faster-to-build, and
less expensive renewable energy sources available in solar and wind power?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposes some new rules to
clarify Clean Water Act protection.
Some people and organizations have concerns about that,
and the EPA has now responded to those concerns.
Comment periods are still open for you to provide input directly to EPA
about the proposed rule.